Pivoted blade laundry folding machine



Oct. 4, 1960 H. KELLETT 2,954,974

PIVOTED BLADE LAUNDRY FOLDING MACHINE Filed Sept. 6, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 J E II I ii I l: i J II I F' 0 I g 2627 I 24 ii PI INVENTOR.

fliw/Pr KELLErr Oct. 4, 1960 H. KELLETT PIVOTED BLADE LAUNDRY FOLDING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 6, 1957 INVENTOR; flax/Pr KELLETT PIVOTED BLADE LAUNDRY FOLDING MACHINE Harry Kellett, Barrow-in-Furness, England, assignor to The American Laundry Machinery Company, Cincinnan, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Sept. 6, 1957, Ser. No. 682,536 Claims priority, application Great Britain Nov. 7, 1956 6 Claims. (Cl. 270-80) This invention relates to machines for folding flat articles of textile or like materials such as sheets, towels, pillowcases and the like hereinafter referred to as flatwork. Such machines are used for example in laundry work in association with ironers and it is desirable that the flat-work should be folded with the finished side to the outside.

Machines for folding laundry flatwork are known (for example that described in British specification No. 664,- 178, US. Patent No. 2,464,823, of March 22, 1949) in which the leading edge of the fiatwork is fed downwardly adjacent a reciprocable horizontal folding arm which is 'reciprocated in timed relationship with the feeding of the work so that the work is draped over the blade and then fed by the blade into the nip of a pair of folding rolls. In these machines, the folding blade contacts the underside of the work as it comes from the feeding rolls, the initial reciprocation of the blade is against the direction of feed of the work and the blade passes the work through the folding rolls in the same direction as it is fed by the feeding rolls with the result that the work is folded with the underside (the ironed side) inwards. Theoretically, the work could be turned upside down before being folded but this is hardly possible in practice because the work dealt with by these machines is fed continuously and varies in length.

It is an object of this invention to provide a folding machine which folds fiatwork with the ironed side outwards.

In a machine in accordance with the invention, the folding blade contacts the work on the ironed side, carries it in the direction of feed to allow it to drape over the blade and then feeds it through folding rolls in the opposite direction so that the article is folded with the ironed side outwards.

From another aspect, a folding machine for flatwork in accordance with the invention comprises a conveyor means for feeding Work in a substantially horizontal direction from front to back of the machine, to a delivery roll from which the work passes substantially, vertically, a folding blade reciprocable towards and from the delivery roll, said folding blade having a rear surface remote from the delivery roll and an edge portion directed towards the delivery roll, means for positioning the folding blade to receive the leading edge of the article on its rear surface, means for moving the blade rearwardly away from the delivery roll after a predetermined length of said work is received on said surface so that the article drapes over the edge portion in a loop between the folding blade and the delivery roll and, means for moving the blade towards the delivery roll after a predetermined length of said work has been draped over said blade and to feed said work to folding rolls through which the work passes in a direction towards the front of the machine.

Preferably the delivery roll forms one of the folding States atent O Patented Oct. 4, 1960 rolls, the other being spring pressed towards it and driven from it.

From the folding rolls, the work may be delivered to an inclined delivery plate and thence by a conveyor to a delivery table at the rear of the machine.

Other parts of the invention are embodied in the preferred form which will now be described in some detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. l and Fig. 1A together are a side view of the rear end of a machine embodying the invention,

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view on the line IIII of Fig. 1 showing the arrangement of the fold blade and,

Figs. 3 to 6 are diagrammatic views showing successive stages in the folding operation.

This machine is generally of the type described in British specification No. 664,178 (US Patent No. 2,464,823) and comprises three sets 1, 2, 3 of endless ribbons or tapes which convey through the machine the articles to be folded. These tapes pass over rolls 4, 5, 6 and are driven in coordination by means not shown but substantially as described in specification No. 664,178 (US. Patent No. 2,464,823). Articles to be folded are delivered to the upper tapes 1 from an ironer or the like (not shown) which delivers them with the ironed side in contact with the tapes. The articles are carried to the left in Fig. I delivered tothe second set of tapes 2 and carried to the right and are then carried to the left by the third set of tapes 3.

From the third set of tapes 3, the articles pass over the delivery roll 6 between curved resilient pressure members 7, 8 which apply a light frictional drag on the article. Pressure is applied to the members 7, 8 by a roller 45 mounted on an arm 47 pivoted about a pivot 48 and biased by gravity against the members 7, 8. The article passes from the delivery roll 6 in a substantially vertical direction with its ironed side towards the right in Fig. 1, that is towards the front of the machine.

The article passes along the rearward surface 9 of a folding blade 10 until about one fourth of the length of the article is on the blade (see Fig. 3). The blade 10 is then moved back-wardly to the position shown in Fig. 4 where the article is gripped between a stationary gripping roller 11 and a forwardly projecting portion 12 of the blade.

The article continues to be delivered over the roll 6 with the result that it drapes over the frontward edge 13 of the portion 12 of the blade as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the article being looped between the gripping roller 11 and the delivery roll 6.

When three-fourths of the article has passed the delivery roll, the article is positioned as shown in Fig. 5 and at this point, the folding blade 10 is moved to the right so that the portion 12 enters into the nip between the delivery roll 6 and a folding roller 14. The article passes between the roll 6 and folding roller 14 and is thus folded in four with the ironed side on the outside.

The folded article passes from the folding roller 14 over stainless steel fingers 15 on to a rearwardly and forwardly inclined delivery plate 16 and thence on to a conveyor 17 which carries it rearwardly to a table 18. The conveyor 17 comprises a set of endless ribbons between which, near the end of the conveyor projects stripping fingers 19 which strip the article from the conveyor for delivery to the table 18.

The folding blade 10 is journalled on a shaft 20 lying rearward of the vertical plane through the axis of the delivery roll 6. It is formed of two portions 10 and 10' which can be adjusted in relative angular position and locked by bolts 21 engaged in arcuate slots 22 coaxial with the shaft 20.

The lower end of the folding plate portion 10' is connected' by an adjustable. turnbuckle 23 to one end of a lever 24 pivoted at its other end about a pivot ,25 to the frame 29 of the machine. This lever 24 carries a roller 26 which bears against the periphery of a rotary cam 27, the. lever 24;beingypressedtowands the. cam 27 by a spring 28. i

The cam 27- is rotated by amotor (not. shown) which is controlled by timing mechanism operated by the. passage of an. article through the machine. Thistiming mechanism may be of any conventional type, and causes the cam 27- to rotate and reciprocate the blade 1i appropriately to fold the article into four asv previously described.

The gripping roller 11. is mounted-on an arm 31 pivoted to the frame of the machine at 51 and is biased by its weight so as to press upon the blade 10 when this is in its most rear position. Movement of the arm 31 is limited by a stop 32 on the arm abutting against a portion 33-of the frame.

The folding roller 14. ismounted on anarm 34. pivoted about the axis 35 and is spring pressed by springs 36 towards contact with the delivery roll 6. The roller 14 as shown in Fig. 2 comprises a plurality of spaced rubber rings 37 which are aligned with the tapes ofthe conveyor 3 and the crowns 38 of the roll 6. To prevent the folding blade 10 from becoming caught in the nip of the rolls 6 and 14, it is arranged so that-prongs. at. its edge 13 lie between these rings 37, the. prongs being offset onehal f pitch relative to the rings 37. The leading edge of the fold blade 10 is shaped as at 40 to ensure positive diversion of the leading edge of. the sheet.

It is desirable to make the fold. blade of highlypolished stainless steel instead of aluminum as previously since the surface remains smooth in use and imparts lms drag on the article.

The delivery conveyor 17 is driven by a chain 41 from themotor (not shown) driving the other conveyors. This chain is protected by a guard 42.

When articles are not to be folded, they can bypass the folding mechanism, beingdirected by the usual stripping fingers 43 and delivery plate 44 on to the conveyor 17 and hence to the table 18.

The internal delivery plate 16 is faced with a synthetic resin such as that known under the Registered Trade Mark Formica. It is supported fromv the frame of the machine by slotted links 49 atone end and a cross bar 50 near the other. The inclination of the plate16 can be adjusted byadjusting its connection tov the links 49.

It will be understood that the invention is not restricted to the details of the preferred form described which may be modified without departure from the" broad ideas underlying them.

What I claim is:

1. In combination with an ironing machine for. hawork, conveyor means for the flatwork as it emerges from said ironing machine after the ironing thereof, and a folding machine to which the ironed flatwork is delivered by said conveyor means and by. which the flatwork is folded so that the exposed surfacesthereof are ironed surfaces, said folding machine comprising a reciprocable folding blade arranged to have one face thereof contacted by the ironed surface of the leading end portion of the flatwork, means for moving said folding blade and the leading end portion of the fiatwork contacted thereby ina direction to cause the intermediate portion of the flatwork to be looped adjacent the other face of the folding blade, and means for moving said folding blade, the leading end portion of the ilatwork contacted thereby and the looped intermediate portion of the flatwork in the opposite direction so as to cause the flatwork to pass between a pair of folding rolls, with the consequent folding of the flatwork into four layers with the exposed surfaces of. the two .outer layers beingironed surfaces.

2. In combination with an ironing, machine. for fiatwork, conveyor means for the flatwork as it emerges from said ironing machine after the ironing thereof, and a folding machine to which the ironed fiatwork is delivered by said conveyor means and by which the flatwork is folded so that the exposed surfaces thereof are ironed surfaces, said. folding machine comprising reciprocable folding blade arranged to have one face thereof contacted by the ironed surface of the leading end portion of the flatwork, a roll over which. the flatwork moves on its way to said folding blade, means for moving said folding blade and the leading end portion of the flatwork contacted thereby in a direction away from said roll to cause the intermediate portion of the flatwork. to be looped between the roll and the other face of the folding blade, and means for moving said folding blade, the leading end portion of the fiatwork contacted thereby and the looped intermediate portion ofthe flatwork in a, directiontoward the roll so as tocause the fiatwork to pass between said roll and a cooperatin'groll, with the consequent' folding of the flatwork into four layers with the exposed surfacm of the two outer layers being ironed surfaces.

3.. Structure such as defined in claim 2, characterized in that one of the two rolls has spaced peripheral grooves and in that the folding blade has a pronged edge portion, theprongs of which enter the grooves of said roll.

4. Structure such as defined in claim 1, characterized in that the folding blade is pivoted and is reciprocated by a rotary cam engaging a spring pressed lever connected to. the folding blade by extensible means.

5. Structure such as defined in claim 1., characterized in that pivotally mounted means is provided for cooperation with the folding blade to retain in contact with said folding blade the leading end portion of the flatwork preparatory to its passagebetween the folding rolls.

6. Structure such asidefined in claim 1, characterized in that pivotally mounted means is provided for cooperation- With the folding blade to retain in contact with said folding blade the leading end portion of the flatwork preparatory to its passage betweenthe folding rolls, said pivotally mounted means comprising a roller'mounted on a pivoted arm and biased by gravity toward said folding blade.

References-Cited in the file of. thispatent Great Britain May 4', 

